The European branches of Mediamarkt have been hit by hackers since yesterday morning. According to research by RTL News it turns out that the hackers are asking $50 million. The news site also writes that negotiations are currently underway, but our editors cannot confirm that.
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All European branches of the German group, which number more than a thousand, were hit by a cyber attack yesterday. The news was reported by the Dutch RTL News, which said it relied on internal emails it could have viewed. It would state that the computers in the shops could no longer be used. They would also have been asked to remove the internet cables from cash registers and not to restart systems.
Still according to RTL News it concerns the cybercriminal group Hive, which demands 50 million dollars (43 million euros) in bitcoin. Negotiations would currently take place, but the Belgian spokesperson for Mediamarkt responds to The standard that it is ‘rumours.’
It is not new that the hackers demand the ransom in bitcoin. In July this year, the Antwerp ICT company ITxx paid 300,000 US dollars (more than 250,000 euros) to cyber criminals in bitcoin.
• Even bookstores are targets of cyberattack
Criminal organization
For years, the Center for Cybersecurity has advised against paying ransoms to cybercriminal organizations. ‘At that moment you are negotiating with a criminal organization. You never know whether you will get the encrypted data back or whether the organization will leave any traces,” says Katrien Eggers of the Center for Cybersecurity.
It is not clear how many companies in Belgium are affected by such ramsomware (the malicious software that hijacks files, ed.). ‘There is no obligation to report’, says Eggers.
An international report by British insurer Hiscox last May found that more than four in ten (42 percent) of Belgian companies were affected by at least one cyber attack in the past year.
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